Distance hikers object to post-office closings

RALEIGH, N.C. - Hiking the nearly 2,200-mile Appalachian Trail already is grueling, and the Postal Service might make it even tougher.

RALEIGH, N.C. - Hiking the nearly 2,200-mile Appalachian Trail already is grueling, and the Postal Service might make it even tougher.

A plan to close rural post offices could shutter several outposts long used by hikers to receive food and gear as they walk the trail from Georgia to Maine.

Closing the post offices in Fontana Dam, N.C.; Glencliff, N.H.; and Caratunk, Maine, would leave hikers without an easy way to get food and switch out equipment at critical points during their treks, which usually take four to six months. Those key locations and some others near the trail are under review, although no decision has been made.

"I'm trying to do this without spending much money. Getting supplied at the post office is a big part of that. It's like a lifeline," said Mike Healy, 26, of Chicago.

In mid-March, he tore into a package mailed to the Fontana Dam post office before he headed into Great Smokey Mountains National Park.

"The night before we reached Fontana, four of us split a small box of dried cereal because that was all the food we had left," Healy said in a phone interview from Maine. "We were glad to know we'd be able to get our package the following day."

More than 3,600 local offices, branches and stations could be on the chopping block as the Postal Service considers closing 1 in 10 of its retail outlets to save money. Each place will be studied, and people served by the location will be able to make a case for keeping it open.

About 3 million people spend time on the trail each year, and about 2,000 try to "through-hike" - or complete the trek in one season, according to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. Most travel north from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine.

The threat of closing along the Appalachian Trail is mirrored in the West for thousands who traverse sections of the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail, which runs from Mexico to Canada. At least three rural post offices along the route might be closed in California and Washington, including the last stop before Canada: Stehekin, Wash. The wilderness community is reachable only by boat or floatplane or on foot.

Backpackers would have to carry many more pounds of food between stops, which would make the trip more difficult and less enjoyable, said Heather Tilert, a 28-year-old from New York who hiked the trail last year.

Trail hikers typically walk or hitchhike into nearby towns for supplies every week or so, and many are on tight budgets. In some spots, discount stores provide the ramen noodles and peanut butter used to replace the thousands of calories that hikers burn each day. But in others, stores are harder to find, and hikers ship supplies in advance to post offices that will hold the packages for them.

Also common is the use of "bounce boxes" filled with extra food, batteries or books, which hikers mail to themselves between the 121 post offices near the trail.

At the Fontana Dam office, employee Brenda Williams said it's not unusual for her to give out 30 to 40 packages daily during peak hiking season. It's the busiest time of year for the post office in the town of about 30 full-time residents.

In Caratunk, hikers can pick up parcels at the post office less than a half-mile from the trail. If that site closes, the nearest post office will be 71/2 miles up the road in West Forks, but it also might close. The next-nearest is 15 miles away.

Hikers toting walking sticks and lugging packs stream into and out of the post office during the hiking season, said Liz Caruso, a Caratunk selectwoman. Last year, 374 packages were mailed to the post office for hikers.

"On Thursday in Caratunk, Madelyn Hoagland-Hanson of Philadelphia said fellow hikers were signing a petition at a hostel in New Hampshire aimed at keeping the Glencliff post office open.

Thru-hiker Greg Brown, of Pleasantville, N.Y, said the towns along the trail in Maine are far apart. "I don't think there's much in the way of a grocery store. Otherwise you're going to have to carry everything you need from Stratton to Monson, which is like 80 miles," he said.

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